2 Oregon mayors resign after ridiculing wokeness, LGBTQ issues on social media

Two mayors in Oregon have now announced their resignations after evidence suggested they ridiculed LGBTQ and other woke issues in private social media posts.

On Monday, Dean Sawyer resigned from his position as mayor of Newport, a city of about 10,000 residents along the Pacific Coast. Sawyer first joined the Newport city council in 2011 and was elected mayor in 2018. He won re-election in both 2020 and 2022.

In addition to his political service, Sawyer also spent 30 years as a Newport police officer. In 2016, he joined a private Facebook group called "LE Only." To join the group of about 40,000 current and retired law enforcement officers around the country, Facebook users like Sawyer must submit a picture of their law enforcement credentials.

In the last few weeks, Oregon Public Broadcasting somehow managed to view some of Sawyer's posts in the "LE Only" group and reported that he had posted "hateful" memes and messages making fun of Will "Lia" Thomas, a man who competed against women in collegiate swimming; Bud Light; a "trans dancer"; and those who speak Spanish. According to OPB, Sawyer also expressed support for former President Donald Trump's immigration ideas, which would limit the number of Mexicans working in the U.S.

After OPB published reports about Sawyer's posts, dozens in the city, including two former mayors and several city council members, demanded his resignation. Sawyer complied and offered a lengthy mea culpa excoriating himself for daring to defy leftist groupthink.

"I now realize that some of my actions and my words have hurt people I love and care about. This is something that I take full responsibility for," Sawyer wrote in a letter about the length of a typical article at TheBlaze. "I am sorry to everyone in this community and anyone hurt by my actions, directly or indirectly. The posts I made and the humor I engaged in do not reflect my values. It was wrong for me to belittle people with experiences different than my own."

Despite the detailed letter announcing his resignation, many in the community piled on Sawyer and added their own theatrical statements about the supposed harm his private Facebook group posts caused:

• "This jeopardizes the trust of our community members of their local elected officials and law enforcement," said former Philomath city councilor Catherine Biscoe.
• "As a member of a marginalized community, it deeply hurts to know someone you’ve known and worked with could harbor these kind of ideas and share them," claimed Claire Hall, described by Oregon Live as "a transgender woman activist."
• "His actions were appalling," added Newport Police Chief James Malloy, who also called Sawyer's resignation "the right move for the city."

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